By: Rosie Lombardi, InterGovWorld.com(Jan 23, 2008
The Ontario government’s ban on the use of social networking upstart Facebook in the workplace unleashed a hail of controversy in 2007. Pundits, technology evangelists and naysayers squared off in the media, debating the pros and cons of this emerging phenomenon.
Facebook has risen to sudden prominence in Canada, growing from one million visitors in 2006 to 14 million in 2007, according to ComScore Canada. Facebook ranks fourth in the top ten Web sites, after major search giants MSN, Google and Yahoo. And Canada contains about 10 per cent of Facebook’s entire global population, according to The Facebook Blog.
The government is scrambling to deal with social networking and other Web 2.0 technologies that are spreading like wildfire across the nation, particularly among the young. Some say social media can revolutionize government communications, while others say they are enormous time-wasters. How should governments tackle this new beast?
